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Jeff Gordon won the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Indianapolis on Sunday. He is now the only driver in any series to win five races at the IMS oval. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

Gordon becomes first racer in any series to win five races on Brickyard oval

It was Jeff Gordon, again, at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver whose family moved from California to Indiana so he could race as a young teenager won his record-setting fifth Brickyard 400.

He won the first in 1994 and the fifth on Sunday.

In between, brick-kissing moments in 1998, 2001 and 2004, and he showed that on the verge of his 43rd birthday he’s still as good as ever.

Gordon muscled past Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kasey Kahne on the restart with 17 laps left to move into history. While the Brickyard 400 isn’t the same as the Indianapolis 500, Gordon has more wins at this track than A.J. Foyt, Al Unser and Rick Mears. Michael Schumacher won five times in the since-disbanded U.S. Grand Prix.

Gordon joined Mears as the only drivers to win here in three different decades. Mears won his first 500 in 1979, the last in 1991.

Gordon pulled away from passing Kahne to score a 2.325-second victory. It came on the day when Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard had proclaimed it “Jeff Gordon Day” in the city.

“I’m not very good on restarts and I wasn’t very good on them today, but I gave the restart of my life when it matters most,” Gordon said.

On the pivotal restart, Kahne chose in the inside lane in the two-wide pack, and that was fine with Gordon, who said he wanted the outside. They roared their Hendrick-built Chevrolet engines into Turn 1 in side-by-side fashion. Then, Gordon knew he had Kahne.

“I heard him get loose,” Gordon said of his Hendrick Motorsports teammate. “Once I got clear of him I said, ‘I can’t believe this is happening.’”

Gordon said the only difficulty in the remaining laps was keeping his concentration. He has wanted a fifth victory since Jimmie Johnson won a fourth in 2011.

Kyle Busch was helpless in those final 17 laps. He didn’t have tires any fresher than Gordon’s, and he couldn’t keep up. He finished second to lead a Joe Gibbs Racing contingent. Denny Hamlin finished third, Matt Kenseth fourth.

Busch finished second for the second consecutive day. He was second to Ty Dillon in the Nationwide Series race at IMS.

Joey Logano did his best to give Roger Penske his first Brickyard 400 victory, but it wasn’t to be. He settled for the fifth spot, 11.7 seconds behind Gordon.

Kahne dropped to sixth. He had been short on fuel before the final restart gave him a slight reprieve, but he noted before the green flag that his tires were “filthy.”

The race’s top rookie finisher, Kyle Larson, finished seventh and noted how cool it was to see Gordon win the race.

“Like (Dale Earnhardt) Junior at Daytona,” he said.

The race started innocently enough with Kevin Harvick on the pole, but that order didn’t last long. Gordon passed him coming to the start of Lap 2.

Gordon led the next 12 laps to push his career total to 500 laps led at IMS. For perspective, only seven drivers in Indianapolis 500 history have led that many laps, led by Unser with 644.

Gordon’s 21st Brickyard 400 also was noteworthy. He’s strung those starts together consecutively, making him tied for second in IMS history for that category. Only A.J. Foyt (35 consecutive races) and Unser (21) have started that many in succession in the 500; like Gordon, Bobby Labonte has started 21 consecutive NASCAR races at this track.

The Brickyard is a race that dwarfs almost all the others on the NASCAR circuit, but it’s worth noting that Gordon scored the 90th win of his Sprint Cup career. Richard Petty leads all drivers with 200, although many of those came in an era of more than twice as many races as Gordon has today. David Pearson won 105 races in his career.

Gordon also is leading the point standings in pursuit of his fifth series title. Johnson, who has six titles, finished 14th in this race.

The accidents were few. Paul Menard, the 2011 winner, scrubbed the Turn 3 wall, and Trevor Bayne had a long, slow slide through Turn 3 after cutting the right rear tire.

“I thought I felt it about a half-a-lap sooner, but (I) just didn’t have time to check it out,” Bayne said. “The spotters are on the other side of the racetrack, so they can’t tell what’s going on.”

Most spotters prefer being on top of the speedway’s pagoda located at the start/finish line.

Danica Patrick didn’t have the race she wanted. On a stop on Lap 67, something in the rear end broke, forcing the car to the garage for lengthy repairs.

An official crowd count wasn’t available, but estimates ranged from 65,000 to 85,000. A track official said it was “similar to last year,” but the event has dwindled at the gate in recent years. That’s about one-third the size of the 500’s crowd in May.